Making up for lost time

ZaVious Robbins and Hardin-Simmons are trying to
erase memories of a painful '09.
Hardin-Simmons athletics photo

The expectations were high and so was their ranking. At 1-0, the
Hardin-Simmons Cowboys entered their Sept. 12 matchup at Linfield
in McMinnville, Oregon last season ranked fifth in the nation and
coming off a playoff berth in 2008.

Sure, they had lost in the first round again to conference
archrival and nemesis Mary Hardin Baylor, 38-35. But heck, the
Crusaders, who then advanced all the way to the semifinals, had
only beaten them 20-18, during the regular season.

Surely, with seniors like quarterback Justin Feaster and
receiver ZaVious Robbins, 2009 was the year that the Cowboys would
end UMHB’s five years of dominance in the American Southwest
Conference and make a deep playoff run of their own.

But on that afternoon, Hardin-Simmons fortunes took a turn for
the worse in a 37-22 loss to the Wildcats. Both Feaster and Robbins
went down with what turned out to be season-ending injuries as did
several other important players.

“It was definitely humbling, one of the most
humbling things in our lives,” said Robbins who has roomed
with Feaster for the past three years. “When I got hurt, I
didn’t realize it until I started to run back to get ready
for the next play. I came off to the sideline and the trainer told
me I tore my ACL. I went in and put on my travel cloths and came
back out and was crying on Feaster’s shoulder. He’s
sitting there say ‘we’re going to do this for
you.’

“In the second half, he got hurt and he comes to the
sideline and now he’s crying on my shoulder. We don’t
know what’s going to happen from this point forward. It was a
long flight back. Our house was not a very nice place to be. There
was a lot of ice in our house. Once we figured out that our
injuries too damaging to come back, we promised each other that we
were going to work out together as hard as we could.”

That commitment helped to push the roommates through the
grueling rehab.

“Last year was a hard year for both of us,” said
Feaster, who had injured his shoulder. “We faced a lot of
adversity. We wanted to come back this year stronger than ever, so
all through last year and the offseason we were rehabbing
together.”

But even coming back was not assured. Feaster, who transferred
after a year at North Texas, would have to apply for a medical
red-shirt not always given to players in their sixth year. And in
the case of Robbins, you just never know with knee injuries.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys lost four games in a row, watching a season
of promise and expectation go down in flames.

“You see your whole career flash before your eyes,”
Robbins said. “Because you don’t know get the red-shirt
or not until the middle of the summer sometimes. It’s like
watching everything pass you by. You know that you were taking
things for granted at some point and it just makes you cherish the
moment a whole lot more.”

Still the seniors tried to stay involved with the program.

“Any time you have that kind of injury it’s always
going to be tough on the team,” Feaster said. “We had
to go back to the drawing board as a team, change our offensive
scheme and how we felt we could score more points and put ourselves
in a position to win.

“We were both captains at the time and those were hard
times for us, but the only thing we could do was keep being leaders
on the team and encourage those guys to do the best that they
could.”

“It’s a bad feeling, bad feeling,” Robbins
added. “Nobody wants to watch their team that has such high
expectations take the turn that we did last year.”

Still, though it didn’t seem like it at the time, last
season’s crash has had a direct effect on the team’s
success so far this season and play of the quarterback/receiver
duo. Hardin-Simmons righted the ship last season winning their last
five games to finish at 6-4. They also were able develop their
running game with veteran backs Stephen Rockwell and Derrick Grant.
The result has been a more balanced offensive unit so far this
season.

“We’ve been more balanced the last three
games” Feaster said.” That puts us in a better position
to win ball games. All of our guys are about the team and not about
individual accomplishments.”

And with a 3-0 start this year against one of the toughest
schedules in Division III, the connection the pair shared during
offseason recovery has carried over on to the field. Feaster and
Robbins have connected 29 times for 354 yards and a touchdown thus
far.

“I feel over the last three or four years we’ve
gained a sort of chemistry on and off the field,” Feaster
said. “I always know where he’s going to be and he
always seems to find open spots. I am just glad to have a receiver
and a friend like ZaVious who is such as great guy and a great
competitor.”

And the pair left little doubt that they were fully recovered in
the season opener against game Whitworth. They had connected eight
times for 113 yards in the first half alone in the Cowboys' 27-7
victory in the Pacific Northwest. Feaster finished 18-of-23 on the
day for 236 yards with a touchdown, while Robbins ended with 10
catches for 134 yards.

Since then the combination has continued to click in wins
against 13th-ranked Williamette and 19th-ranked Mississippi
College. Feaster is completing 77 percent of his passes for 859
yards with four touchdowns, while Robbins is among the
nation’s leading receivers with 29 receptions for 354 yards,
including a 74-yard touchdown. Meanwhile, the running game has also
flourished as Grant and Rockwell have combined to average 105 yards
a game.

“Right now, our team is excited about the position we are
in,” Feaster said. “We feel like we’ve worked
extremely hard to get where we are at.

“Zavious knows how to play the game and he’s an
awesome competitor. We feel like some our best athletes are at the
receiver position, if we can get them the ball quickly and let them
do the work (we’ll be successful.)”

“We’ve been working out together since the day after
that (Linfield) game,” added Robbins, who has gone from
135-pound freshman to a 175-pound fifth year senior.”
It’s been amazing and I think it’s starting to
show.”

As they enter this week’s game against rival Mary
Hardin-Baylor, the duo knows it will take another superior team
effort to knock off the fifth-ranked Crusaders.

“We have nothing but respect for those guys and their
program,” Feaster said. “Every year they’re
always a great football team.

“We always know they are going to give us their best game
every time they step on the field. Whenever you play those guys you
know one thing, both teams are going to come to play as hard as
they can. They key is to eliminate mental mistakes and turnovers.
If we can go out and do that, we’ll put ourselves in a good
position to win.”

“Coming in as a freshman, this is the game you hear about
— the Mary Hardin-Baylor/Hardin-Simmons rivalry,”
Robbins said. “This is the fifth time I’ve played them
and we’ve haven’t beat them yet.

“It definitely puts a chip on my shoulder. It means so
much not only to the Hardin-Simmons tradition but to this season
alone. We have a lot of big goals we want to accomplish. In order
to accomplish those we have to go through them.”

“Absolutely, that’s one of our goals every year---
to win the conference,” Feaster agreed. “We
haven’t been able to do that the last five years so the
desire is there and we’re hungry. I feel like we’ve got
a great team this year.”

And for Robbins the game is more than a matter school pride. His
step-brother Ben Beckworth is a starting linebacker for the
Crusaders. The two will line up across from one another on
Saturday. Robbins will have to block Beckworth, while Beckworth
will have to tackle Robbins.

“I talk to him every week, except for this one,”
Robbins said. “It adds a level intensity because you
don’t want to be beat by your brother.

“That’s something you’ll have to hear for the
rest of your life. He’s got all the rings so I hear it every
time I see him. It’s fun, but it would be nice to be able to
laugh too. He’s the one getting to do all the laughing now.
Maybe we’ll be able to laugh together at some
point.”

But even if Robbins can’t get the last laugh in his
brother this Saturday, both he and Feaster are thankful to be able
to spend another season as members of the Hardin-Simmons football
family. They both know that their college careers could end in an
instant. And that makes the moments of their second senior year all
the more precious.

“You take a different approach to practice and the
relationships you build in the locker room,” Robbins said.
“You definitely don’t take anything for granted once
you see what we saw last year.”

Games of the Week
Hardin-Simmons (3-0) at Mary Hardin-Baylor (2-0). The
Crusaders have had to come from behind in both of their first two
contests, while the Cowboys have beaten ranked teams the past two
weeks.

Millsaps (1-2) at Trinity (1-1). After two
tough loses, the Majors opened the SCAC slate with a win over
Austin getting new coach Aaron Pelch his first win. The Tigers, who
were upset by Rhodes in their SCAC opener will need more than a
“miracle” to take home the conference crown if they
don’t win this one.

Centre (1-2) at Austin (2-1). The loser of this
game is probably out of the conference race since both lost SCAC
openers last week.

Texas Lutheran (1-1) at Howard Payne (1-2). The
Bulldogs got new coach Danny Padron his first win and the program
its first victory since 2008 by upsetting East Texas Baptist 17-14
last week. The Yellow Jackets are hoping to turn it around after
losing two games in the past three weeks by a total of 13
points.

Louisiana College (0-2) at Mississippi College
(2-1). The Wildcats have scored 90 points during their
first two close loses, but can they stop anyone? The Choctaws are
regrouping too after getting whipped at Hardin-Simmons last week.
Expect lots of scoring.

McMurry (2-1) at East Texas Baptist (1-2). Last
year, McMurry broke their 17-game losing streak by beating the
Tigers in Abilene. Then last week, ETBU loses to Texas Lutheran to
snap their 14-game skid. ETBU is a team that beat UW-La Crosse in
its opener. And La Crosse nearly beat Mary Hardin-Baylor the
following week. Which Tiger team shows up?

Sewanee (1-2) at DePauw (2-0). The Tennessee
Tigers take on the Indiana Tigers after being outscored 86-17 the
past two weeks. You wouldn’t expect DePauw, defending SCAC co
champs, to have much problem in this one.

LaGrange (1-2) at North Carolina Wesleyan
(0-2). It could be a tough week for the Panthers as they
travel to the defending USA South champs for their home opener. The
Bishops lost tight games to Salisbury and Hamden-Sydney and have
had two weeks to stew over it. Of course, LaGrange did beat
Millsaps a couple weeks ago, but last week’s loss to a
Maryville team that had been outscored 89-3 the first two weeks
makes you scratch your head.

Contact Info
Feel free to send me your comments at jason.bowen@d3sports.com.
You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter @d3jason. Hope you
have a great weekend.

Justin Goldberg is a newspaper copy editor and freelance writer in southwest Virginia. Originally from New York, he played Division III basketball in that colder region of the country, but moved to Virginia in 2008 to earn his M.F.A. in creative writing. He has written for multiple publications, including C-VILLE Weekly and The Roanoke Times. He is happy to join D3football.com for his first season as the Around the South columnist.2013 columnist: Andee Djuric2012 columnist: Kyle Robarts2008-11 columnist: Jason Bowen